User feedback is an important part of pain and edema management. As individuals vary in the tolerance for, and the sensation of pain and edema, it is important to tailor treatments to the individual. Joint and muscle pain and edema can be caused by multivariate factors. Swelling, strains, or breaks in tissues can cause severe pain and edema lasting for longer periods. Additionally, delayed onset muscle soreness, and fatigue pain and edema from exercise and over use respectively can cause pain and edema in discomfort that may limit activities of daily living. Chronic pain and edema resulting from ailments such as arthritis, fibromyalgia and others can affect the daily living activities and the comfort of afflicted individuals.
Currently, there are a number of methods for pain and edema relief. Pharmaceutical methods of treating pain and edema with analgesics are effective for acute pain and edema; however, they are not as effective for chronic pain and edema management because of side effects caused by their prolonged use.
The more conventional non-pharmaceutical method of relieving pain and edema is through massage and vibration therapies, as well as acupressure. Massage therapy is the art of manipulation of muscles and connective tissues to enhance function and aid in the healing process. Massage therapy relives pain and edema from musculoskeletal injuries, rehabilitates sports injuries and other causes of pain and edema. Furthermore, massage therapy has been shown to enhance relaxation, and reduce stress, anxiety, and subclinical depression. It is also shown to temporarily reduce blood pressure, and heart rate.
Acupressure involves applying physical pressure against specific parts of the body to achieve some degree of treatment or pain and edema relief. However, these devices require an attending therapist during treatment to be effective.
Electric stimulation is another method to relieve pain and edema, in which pulses of electric energy at low current levels are applied to the parts of the body that emanate pain and edema. To apply an electric stimulus the prior art teaches the use of TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) devices. TENS devices deliver electric bursts through the skin to cutaneous (surface) and afferent (deep) nerves to control pain and edema. TENS are able to stimulate a specific nerve to ease a specific point of pain and edema.
Another method of pain and edema relief is through the use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to stimulate specific groups on neurons in the cortex. The repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a method of generating a weak magnetic field and electric currents in brain cortex neurons using the principle of an electromagnetic induction by instantaneously passing a current through a coil and non-invasively stimulating brain cortex neurons. TMS is delivered by passing a brief (200 microsecond), strong (10,000 volts, 6,000 amps) electrical current through a coil of wire (a TMS stimulator) placed adjacent to the head. The passage of electrical current induces a strong (2 Tesla) magnetic field which, in turn, induces electrical currents in nearby tissues. In the case of nerve cells, if the induced current is sufficiently intense and properly oriented, it will result in synchronized depolarization of a localized group of neurons.